dorkyA contentious issue in the 1920s was the teaching of evolution in schools. Tennessee State Representative John W. Butler was head of the World's Christian Fundamentals Association. He lobbied state legislatures to pass laws prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools. He succeeded in Tennessee when the Butler Act was passed. The American Civil Liberties Union financed a test case in which John Scopes, a Tennessee high school science teacher, agreed to be tried for violating the Act.
Scopes taught the prohinited doctrine while substututing for the regular high school biology teacher. He was charged on May 5, 1925 with teaching evolution from a chapter in a textbook that described the theory. In the spirit of speedy justice, his trial began two months later.
The two sides brought in the biggest legal names of their time. William Jennings Bryan appeared for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. The trial was publicized on radio throughout the country.
The presiding judge, John T. Raulston, was accused of being biased towards the prosecution and frequently clashed with Darrow. On the seventh day of the trial, Darrow took the very unusual step of calling Bryan, his opposing counsel, as a witness. Bryan was not a compellable witness, but he agreed to be cross-examined, on the understanding that Darrow would also submit to cross-examination. The scientists the defense had brought in prepared topics and questions for Darrow to question Bryan on.
Darrow asked questions such as "if Eve was actually created from Adam's rib, where did Cain get his wife", and "how many people lived in Ancient Egypt". Darrow used these and other examples to suggest that the stories of the Bible could not be scientific and should not be used in teaching science. Darrow said to Bryan, "You insult every man of science and learning in the world because he does not believe in your fool religion." Bryan replied "the reason I am answering is not for the benefit of the superior court. It is to keep these gentlemen from saying I was afraid to meet them and let them question me, and I want the Christian world to know that any atheist, agnostic, unbeliever, can question me anytime as to my belief in God, and I will answer him."
Bryan's co-counsel Tom Stewart objected, demanding to know the legal relevance of Darrow's questions. Bryan answered the question saying that its purpose was "to cast ridicule on everybody who believes in the Bible". Darrow vehemently retorted, "We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States."
When Darrow asked Bryan where Cain got his wife, Bryan answered that he would "leave the agnostics to hunt for her". When Darrow addressed the issue of the temptation of Eve by the serpent, Bryan insisted that the Bible be quoted verbatim rather than allowing Darrow to paraphrase it in his own terms. However, after another angry exchange, Judge Raulston became frustrated and adjourned proceedings for the day. The following morning Raulston ruled that he considered the whole cross-examination irrelevant to the case and that it should be "expunged" from the record. Accordingly, Bryan was denied the chance to cross-examine Darrow.
After eight days of trial, it took the jury just nine minutes to deliberate. Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered to pay a $100 fine (approximately $1,325 in 2012 dollars). Raulston imposed the fine before giving Scopes an opportunity to say anything on his own behalf. When the error was brought to the judge's attention Scopes spoke for the first and only time in court. He said "Your honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom — that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom. I think the fine is unjust."
The case was appealed and the appellate court found the statute to be constitutional, but it set aside the conviction because of a technicality. It found that the jury should have decided the fine, not the judge, since under the state constitution, Tennessee judges could not at that time set fines above $50, and the Butler Act specified a minimum fine of $100. The matter was remitted for a retrial, but the state decided it was not worthwhile to retry the matter.
In 1955 Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee wrote a play entitled Inherit the Wind, which was loosely based on this trial. The play renamed Darrow and Bryan into characters called Henry Drummond and Matthew Brady. It was made into a 1960 film directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Spencer Tracy as Drummond and Fredric March as Brady.
Although I have not found a direct definitive quote from these men about the subject, it has been written that President Calvin Coolidge and his Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were against the idea of Scopes being prosecuted. I don't know if it was because they were opposed to anything peddled by an old Democrat like Bryan, or because Coolidge just believed it all to be a bunch of monkey business.
On the afternoon of July 26, 1925, five days after the jury rendered its verdict, William Jennings Bryan died in his sleep.